U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,548 to Bouwers et al. discloses one type of prior art wood chipper. The chipper includes a rotating cutting drum adapted to cut wood into small chips that are propelled through a discharge chute. Feed rollers are used to feed the wood desired to be chipped from an inlet into a cutting path of the rotatable cutting drum.
In recent years, the size of mobile wood chippers has increased. Wood chippers capable of processing logs having 18 to 20 inch diameters are now common. As the capacity of chippers has increased, loading of the chippers has become more difficult. This is understandable when it is considered that 18 inch diameter logs can weigh approximately 100 pounds per foot.